ECU medical school climbs in annual U.S. News magazine rankings

U.S. News magazine ranks the Brody School of Medicine among the top schools in the nation for students, such as Robert Corprew, shown examining a child, to learn primary care. Photo by Cliff Hollis

GREENVILLE, N.C.
(Mar. 31, 2006)
—
The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University moved up this year among medical schools that emphasize primary care, according to the annual listing of the best professional schools by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

ECU is tied for sixth among primary care schools with Duke University in Durham, the University of Colorado-Denver and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, up from 34th in 2005. The school's family medicine program is ranked ninth, up from 11th in 2005. ECU is also tied for seventh in rural medicine.

Dr. Cynda Johnson, dean of the medical school, said that with as many as 75 percent of its graduating students entering primary care residencies in recent years, ECU deserves a spot among the top schools.

"There is no question in my mind that our performance justifies these top-10 rankings," she said. "These rankings in primary care, family medicine and rural medicine demonstrate yet again that the Brody School of Medicine excels in meeting the missions on which it was founded."

The U.S. News rankings of U.S. professional schools - business, education engineering, law and medicine -will be available on newsstands April 3. In medicine, the magazine considered the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools and 19 schools of osteopathic medicine.

This year, the University of Washington was again rated the top primary care school. Harvard University ranked first in the ranking of top medical schools that emphasize research.

Rankings for primary care schools are based on a weighted average of seven indicators, four of them common for research- and primary care-focused schools. The primary care model also considered the number of graduates entering primary care residencies.